The Last Train to Delta Proxima
by TheEleventhWheatley
Summary: The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive for the opening of the largest train station in the universe. One problem, though, and that's that they're six weeks early. Before long, the hyperspace gates that hold the train lines together start inexplicably malfunctioning and there may well be something waiting in there...


**The Voltaire Megaplex, 6754**

Liam turned, and cautiously watched the next train depart. It would be a good few hours before he could reach home, and catch up with Mum. It had been about a month since he had last seen her, and he needed to catch up, and, you know, have a chat, maybe a cuppa.

Anxiously, he looked at the timetable board. Apparently it would be ten minutes before the next Proxima Line train turned up. Even using the Hilu took time, there were delays in hyperspace, according to the notice board. A poster somewhere was advertising visits to an accurate recreation of 21st century Earth, and he wondered if there had always been monkeys delivering the post. It seemed so unsophisticated. They hadn't even got to Jupiter before the end of the century.

A short while later, his train arrived, and he boarded. After the usual safety announcements about not disembarking from your seats while the train was in the Hilu, the train set off.

The journey into the Hilu this time was an odd one, he noted. Normally there was minimum shaking, a bit of warpy-stuff and then everything was fine. This journey, however, was ridiculously bumpy. He was nearly thrown out of his chair as the train entered, skidded to one side as the space-tracks disappeared, rolled over, and crashed over the bank, skidding to a violent halt that fractured Liam's skull and left him dead and broken.

* * *

**The TARDIS, 6754**

Rory frowned. "So…we're going to a train station, are we?"

"Oh, no, not just a regular train station, Rory!" the Doctor grinned, twirling to face him with a dramatic flourish, "We're going to the Voltaire Megaplex, _the_ largest, and best, and most expansive train station known to man! And woman! And small, furry creatures from Alpha Centauri! But, that's beside the point. The point is, we're going to watch the Grand Opening! If we've landed in the right place, as I'm_ sure_ we have, in a few minutes from now, the Proxima Line will span the entire universe and the opening ceremony will be one of the most spectacular things ever known to man, or woman, or small, furry – sorry, I've done that."

Rory rolled his eyes. "So…we're going to watch a train station _opening_, then?"

"Essentially, yes. Where's Amy?"

"Getting dressed, I think."

"Well, go tell her to hurry up, I don't want to miss the ceremony."

Several minutes later, the three of them were assembled outside the TARDIS, in one of the baggage retrieval corridors that weren't usually so empty.

"Well," the Doctor admitted, looking rather sheepish, "We're sort of six weeks early. Um, sorry about that."

Amy punched his arm, playfully. "We can go ahead six weeks, can't we?"

The Doctor looked over at Rory, then back at the TARDIS. "We _could_, but I really want a look around first! You two head back in, I'll get back to you in ten, twenty minutes. Ta ta."

And with that, he was gone.

Rory sighed. "Well, let's go," he muttered. He reached for the door handle, and growled exasperatedly. "Locked," he mumbled.

He looked at Amy, who grinned at him. "You weren't really planning on actually staying inside, were you?"

"Um, yeah." Rory admitted. He chuckled nervously.

Amy laughed, kissed him, and then hurried off after the Doctor.

Meanwhile, thirty-seven metres away, the Doctor was hurriedly scanning one of the leaflets for the Proxima Line.

"Best views in all of time and space?" he laughed. "They're impressive, but I've seen better." He thought about taking a ride on the Line. Just a quick ride, just to have a look. His rational side decided against it; but, then again, when had he ever listened to his rational side?

He booked a ticket and strode over to one of the ticket barriers.

Amy and Rory finally caught up with him as he was trying to explain to the guard exactly _why_ he was using psychic paper as a proof of identity.

"Doctor," Amy muttered breathlessly, "We've been looking for you everywhere!"

The guard eyed them suspiciously. "Are you with this man, ma'am?"

Amy looked at Rory, then at the Doctor. "Well, more or less. But I'm more with Rory here, if you see what I mean."

The guard looked at them as if he thought he would somehow be able to extract an entire confession directly from their brains.

"I'm afraid I'll have to detain you two, as well. Please come with me," he ordered, gesturing for the three of them to step into a side room.

"Oh, Doctor," sighed Amy, "What did you do this time?"

"Please remain silent, ma'am," ordered the guard.

Amy gave him a look, but shut up.

* * *

The Doctor twiddled his bow tie as they sat in the cell.

They had established, several minutes back, that the Sonic Screwdriver had been confiscated and the door was guarded, so their best bet was probably just to wait for a better chance to escape. By the Doctor's knowledge, they had confiscated the TARDIS too.

Overall, their situation was _not_ ideal.

A few minutes later, an announcement was broadcast over the speakers. But, seeing as there were no speakers in the cell, the voice was muffled and hard to hear. The Doctor jumped to his feet and pressed his ear against the cell door.

What he heard was something along the lines of '_mumble mumble muffled sound mumble Last Train mumble Proxima cancelled muffled noises mumble fault with the Hilu. Thank you. Mumble mumble._'

"Hmm," he wondered, "The last train to somewhere on the Proxima Line is cancelled, something to do with a fault in the Hilu."

"The what?" Rory echoed. "What's a Hilu?"

"You expect me to know that, Rory?"

"Well, yes," interrupted Amy.

The Doctor glanced around him, then at the door. "Hold on a minute," he said, then checked the leaflet. "Hilu – linked travel across the universe through a method of interlinked hyperspace portals."

"And this is a _train_ station?" echoed Amy incredulously.

"Yes, Pond, it's a highly advanced one at that, too. The train goes through space and goes faster by means of these Hilus, or portals to hyperspace. Space trains, in a sense."

"Space trains. Right. Got it." Rory announced, trying not to sound too confused.

"And presumably one of them on the Proxima Line has developed a fault. So, we're stuck in here while they're out there trying to fix a fault they probably know nothing about. Ideal, isn't it." He spoke loudly.

"Says you, Mister You-expect-me-to-know-that-Rory. You didn't know what they were less than two minutes ago!" complained Amy.

The Doctor frantically put a finger to his lips. "Alright," the Doctor admitted, lowering his voice, "I learn fast." He raised his voice again. "Although, it would be _much_ easier to let me help fix it, I'm an expert in hyperspatial travel."

The Ponds cottoned on, quickly. "Shame they didn't know that," Rory said, loudly.

"Why _are_ we locked up, anyway?" Amy asked, perhaps a bit too blatantly.

"I tried to use psychic paper," the Doctor explained, "Although, as a private detective, one can never use real identification. Of course, I couldn't tell him that in public."

Rory was trying to work out a way to ask the Doctor how he could be a private detective and a hyperspatial travel expert in one without making the listening guards suspicious. "Well," he tried, "As a private detective _and_ Hilu engineer, they can't have much cause to detain you, surely?"

As if on command, the door swung open and a guard strode in. "Look, you may as well stop making up this rubbish, no-one believes you and it gives us even more cause to detain you longer. So be quiet and wait."

The Doctor leapt up. "Hold on," he exclaimed, "You're certain I was making this all up?"

"Yeah." the guard muttered.

"Ah," the Doctor mumbled, "Well, answer me this. How can you be certain I'm not lying?"

"Answer _me THIS_, then," the guard ordered. "What does HILU stand for?"

"Oh, Hilu? Oh yeah, it's an acronym, isn't it?"

"Yeah," the guard said, gruffly. "Whassit stand for?"

"HILU?"

"Yes!"

"Hyperspatial Interface – Linked Universe."

The guard recoiled slightly. "You've got the leaflet on you, havencha?" His eyes narrowed, and he snatched the leaflet from the Doctor's top pocket. "Cheat."

It was the Doctor's turn to narrow his eyes at the guard. "This leaflet," he said, "Contains nothing about the meaning of Hilu. Check for yourself."

The guard scanned the leaflet, and sighed disbelievingly. "You'd better come with me."

* * *

Five minutes later, the Doctor was embarking on a maintenance platform device, watching Amy and Rory looking at him.

"What do you mean, wait here?" Amy exclaimed. "You tried that less than an hour ago, and look what happened then. We're staying with you, dummy."

The Doctor looked at her, frowned, and told her "Absolutely not. I've no idea what entering a Hilu unprotected could do to a human body, even less so to a Time Lord's."

He jumped down from the craft, and pointed to a hologram map of the Megaplex in the far corner of the station. "Over there, Pond. Go have a look about, see if the Hilus have developed any previous faults over the years."

Amy looked sceptical.

The Doctor turned to clamber back onto the maintenance platform, but stopped as he realised that it wasn't there.

The platform had already begun moving and was halfway down the boarding zone. Rory jumped up and ran after it, the Doctor and Amy in tow. Rory reached it first, and hung onto the ladder, reaching out for the Doctor and Amy as they tried to catch up.

The Doctor leapt at him, and scarcely managed to grab hold of Rory's arm as the platform dragged them out of the boarding zone and into space.

It didn't take very long for the Doctor to haul himself up onto the platform's deck, and it took even less time for him to help Rory up. Once they had successfully been able to stand up, the Doctor observed just how disastrously it had gone.

Rory looked around, muttered something and then looked back at the rapidly receding Megaplex. "Um…"

The Doctor looked slightly sheepish. "Oops."


End file.
